


A Long Way

by Comicsohwhyohwhy



Series: Rise and Fall [2]
Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Namor is a dick, Reed is in over his head, Superior Iron Man, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony pain, business as usual, hickmanvengers, tw: mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2015-01-18
Packaged: 2018-03-08 00:39:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3189281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Comicsohwhyohwhy/pseuds/Comicsohwhyohwhy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reed doesn’t expect to find anything but information in the Necropolis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Long Way

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before _Avengers_ 40, so it does not take the events in it into account. Otherwise Hickman-canon compliant.
> 
> Thanks to [Iloome](http://archiveofourown.org/users/iloome/pseuds/iloome) and [GerdavR](http://archiveofourown.org/users/GerdavR) for beta!

They are wading through the undergrowth.

Reed looks sideways at Namor, and when Namor looks back, there is something guarded in his eyes. Of course, that as such is nothing new – ever since Namor got in touch with the Illuminati again, feeling that he had lost control of the Cabal, he had seemed rather on edge.

But right now, everything is going more than well for them, and Namor still looks as if he were being marched to his trial.

Reed frowns and looks ahead. The entrance to the Necropolis is almost invisible in the darkness, but when Reed slips on his night visor, he can see that Namor has already activated some complicated hidden mechanism that causes the doors to slowly slide open.

When they enter, carefully and quietly, Reed for one moment considers that Namor has been manipulating him after all. What if he’s been lying when he said the Cabal would be out, with only him assigned as guard of their base of operations? But no, he decides after a second, he believes Namor. The man who came to him a few days ago was one clutching at straws, desperate to wriggle out of a hole he had dug for himself.

Even though Reed still isn’t feeling very sympathetic towards a killer of worlds who betrayed the Illuminati and freed their captives, he trusts him. He doesn’t think Namor would stoop so low as to lure him into a trap like that. And after all, Namor helped them win the fight against Captain America’s Avengers. There’s an uncomfortable lurch in his stomach when he thinks of Steve, now locked up in a secret Illuminati base. But it was the only way. Maybe now, they can save everything. Maybe Steve will see reason, once the Illuminati show him all the progress they have made…

They are walking along a damp corridor, and Reed glances down at his portable screener. Today, he mostly wants to assess the situation and the weapons at the Cabal’s disposal and gather information, so that the Illuminati can stop them for good. Reed quickly runs a hand through his hair and can’t quite repress a wave of tiredness washing over him. All this strategising on different fronts is starting to take its toll on him.

When they round another corner, Reed hears something in the distance. It sounds like fists repeatedly hitting something. Reed turns to Namor and sees him flinch. “You said there was no one here?”

Namor squares his jaw. “There isn’t.”

Reed looks at him disbelievingly. “I can clearly hear someone making noise.”

The look that Namor shoots him is defiant and resigned at the same time. “It’s just the thermostat.”

Reed’s lips quirk up almost against his own volition. Surely, Namor can’t think him that naïve. He’s well aware of the fact that the Necropolis doesn’t even have a thermostat, let alone one that gurgles as if it were a hundred years old. After all, Wakanda is– or rather was the most technologically-advanced nation on earth. “You don’t expect me to believe that, do you?”

Namor looks as if he really doesn’t want to talk about this. Reed sighs and decides that they are losing too much time. He starts walking in the direction of the noise to check the source, screener at the ready. It shows him there’s someone somewhere down this corridor. It can’t be Thanos or a member of his order or Black Swan – he knows their readings, after all, the Illuminati held them captive for months. No, the biology indicates that they are dealing with an actual human being here.

Suddenly, he feels Namor’s hand on his shoulder, holding him back. “Reed…”

Reed turns around to look at him, and something strange flickers in Namor’s eyes. He looks almost apologetic. “What? I suppose it’s another captive of the Cabal?”

Namor lowers his voice. “There is something I haven’t told you.”

Reed waits for him to continue. But he doesn’t. Why would he −

And suddenly, Reed realises why Namor has become all fidgety all of a sudden.

He turns around abruptly, shaking off Namor’s hand, stalking in the direction of the pounding. It has stopped now, he notices dimly. In his mind, he keeps on repeating the realisation he has just had. It eats him up.

They have Tony. Thanos and his henchmen have had him in their power. Reed doesn’t want to think about what they might have done to him.

He enters a bigger hall that he knows well – it’s the place where they held the Black Swan. And sure enough, there’s a glass cage there, like he expected. At the sight of the man inside, Reed still feels his blood run cold.

Tony is sitting against the far wall, head hanging low. Maybe he gave up on his pounding out of sheer exhaustion. He is still wearing his silver suit, or rather, parts of it. It’s bloodstained and broken and the skin that is left uncovered is strewn with cuts and bruises. Tony’s hair is matted and when he slowly lifts his head to meet Reed’s eyes, Reed sees blood on his face.

For a moment, neither man says anything. Reed stares into the eyes of his friend, and Tony looks back. He doesn’t really seem to see Reed, though – he seems to look right through him. His eyes are bright and hollow at the same time.

Then Tony chuckles, and it is a terrible sound, a dry little rasping far back in his throat. He raises his hands to his head. “Go away.”

Reed opens his mouth, unsure what to say. Is Tony mad at him for only coming to his rescue now? But then Tony starts violently rubbing his temples and grimaces, looking back down at the soil he is sitting on. “No. Not now. I can’t go mad now. Go away.” And Reed understands that Tony doesn’t trust his own senses. He thinks Reed is just an illusion that his mind, starved of actual human contact, has cooked up.

Reed takes a step closer to the glass and Tony’s head shoots up again. His eyes are wide now. “Tony, it’s me.” He takes another step towards his friend.

Suddenly, Tony moves. He seems to try and crawl even further away from him. His eyes are wide and blue and terrified. “ _Go away_.” His voice is hoarse, as if he hadn’t really used it for a long time. At least not for speech, that is. Judging from the injuries all over his body he has done a fair share of screaming. Reed feels his insides clench.

He raises his arms appeasingly, all the while walking closer to the cage. This has to be handled with care. Tony seems – Tony seems more than disoriented and unstable. He has to get him out of this cage, get him the medical attention he clearly needs, get him a psychological evaluation… “I am not an illusion. I am your friend Reed. The Illuminati have found you.”

Tony doesn’t seem to really listen, though – his face is distorted, as if in pain, and he has raised his hands. Reed notices that some of his fingernails are missing. It looks as if he were desperately trying to ward Reed off, shut him out. It pains Reed more than he cares to admit to see him in such a state.

This doesn’t work. He stops his slow progress towards the cage to deliberate his best course of action.

Then Namor enters the hall. Reed wants to utter a word of warning, but Tony has already seen him. And the transformation in the man is truly frightening.

Tony jumps up in one fluid motion, as if he hadn’t just huddled in the corner like some frightened animal a second before. He takes three quick strides towards Namor and when he loudly smashes his hand against the glass his face is screwed up in anger. “You!”

Namor looks at him coldly. “Yes, Stark, I. Be glad it is me, and not my − not the Cabal.”

Tony sneers. “Oh, I am so grateful, you rat.” His eyes are shooting daggers, and when he turns to look at Reed again, there is almost no reprieve from the anger. Reed has seen it all before, this behaviour that is so shockingly not Tony, these horrible outbursts, ever since the inversion-spell hit him in the fight against the Skull, but it doesn’t make it any better. “So you are really here. The rat betrayed his new friends as well?”

Reed can’t do much more than nod. He doesn’t know how to navigate this, how to be around this Tony who is so unlike the friend he has known for many years, but who so very clearly needs his help. Tony’s lips curl up. “Reed. I am sorry for the welcome I have given you, old friend. So _good_ of you to come and pay me a visit.”

He has taken another step in Reed’s direction, his hand dragging on the glass with an ugly screeching. And now that Reed is face-to-face with Tony, he can see the full extent of the mistreatment Tony has suffered. Tony’s eyes are bloodshot, his face is gaunt and littered with bruises, and he can’t seem to hold himself fully upright. Reed, more than used to dealing with injuries from battles, immediately diagnoses a shattered clavicle and some serious damage in the area of the lower back. But of course, Tony’s injuries aren’t the result of a battle. Reed swallows. Tony’s eyes are at once empty and wild. Reed has to get him out of here.

“I am sorry for only coming to your aid now. We did not know where you were. We were looking, but −”

He gets interrupted by a bitter laugh. “Yes, that must have been very hard to figure out, after I left the Illuminati because you refused to take action against those world-killers.”

Reed looks to the ground, a feeling of intense shame gnawing away at him. Of course Tony is right. Of course they should have used more resources to find him, to get him back. Seeing what he has suffered in the last – oh God, it has honestly been _months_ now – clearly inscribed on his body (and mind?) makes Reed see the extent of their neglect with overwhelming clarity.

But now isn’t the time for feelings of remorse about the past. Now is the time to try and make the future at least marginally better.

“We have to get out of here. We can talk about all of this later, okay?” Reed doesn’t wait for a reply – Tony has already opened his mouth, but before he has the chance to say whatever he wants to say, Reed has taken a nanodisruptor out of his pocket. He applies it to the glass. “Take a step back.”

Tony does, almost automatically, it seems, and Reed presses the button. The glass shatters in a million pieces, falling to the ground right where the walls of the cell stood. Some finely ground glass showers them all, but it doesn’t even hurt one bit. A good invention, Reed thinks, with a little spark of pride.

“Are you _mad_ , Richards?” Namor snarls, who shielded his face with his arms. “If we take him away now, the Cabal immediately knows I have betrayed them. Our whole plan will be for naught.”

Reed shoots him a look and feels anger boiling up, seething just beneath his skin. Namor has betrayed Tony worse than anyone, and he has the audacity to try and refuse him help, even now. “Are you suggesting that we are _leaving_ Tony here, in that state?”

Namor crosses his arms. “I damn well am, yes.”

Reed just shakes his head. An appropriate reaction to Namor’s actions will have to wait. Now there are more important things to be taken care of. “Then you are deluded.”

He steps over the broken glass, towards Tony, who for one moment looks as if he wants to flinch back from him. But then he composes himself. When Reed extends an arm to help him along, though, he almost hisses. “Don’t touch me.”

Reed just shrugs. “Okay, we are doing this on your terms, Tony. But you have to come with us now.”

Tony seems on the verge of refusing, but then it’s as if a switch has been flipped. He starts swaying on his feet. His legs are giving way, and Reed only just manages to catch him. The fight that flared up in him so abruptly before seems to have gone out of him just as suddenly, and his eyes flutter half-closed as he is leaning heavily on Reed’s shoulder, clearly not quite conscious of his surroundings anymore. His body is on the verge of collapsing.

Namor has already stalked out of the hall, no doubt in the direction of the armoury of the Cabal, their original target. Reed tries to adjust Tony’s weight over his shoulder and starts following him, very slowly.

They have a long way to go.


End file.
